Double Skin/ Double Mind teacher training

“DS/DM is a way of preparing the body for dance that is inherent to your thinking and your imagination. It needs a connection with your own choices, also during the improvisation with other elements and materials. The experience creates a condition and an opening, it is not something fixed by rules that say: this is how you should dance. It is rather the opposite, you use it, and then you contrast it in an open field of intervention and manipulation.” Emio Greco

ICK Academy | Dance teacher training | February to July 2021

Double Skin/Double Mind (DS/DM) is a dance method developed by Emio Greco and Pieter C. Scholten to discover the sensitivity of the body and to make it available for the creative process of dance through four basic principles: Breathing, Jumping, Expanding and Reducing. The awareness of the possibilities of movement that the body can generate is necessary when creating new choreographic material, but also beyond that, in everyday life.

DS/DM challenges the participants to apply intentional and physical choices in response to indications given through words, to specific qualities of movement, to sounds, to music and to the presence of other bodies. DS/DM focuses on how movement can be defined through a synergetic environment where each individual body is known to be authentic and can become receptive to a new experience and understanding of the body. DS/DM generates a quality and texture of movement where intention and form coincide, helping the body to become receptive to a new physical and mental experience.

Teacher training information

To safeguard the quality and ongoing transmission of DS/DM across different generations of dancers, and to open up the practice to dancers outside of the company, ICK initiated a DS/DM method teacher training programme in 2017.

We invite you to join the next opportunity to attain the DS/DM Basic Certificate. This implies being certified to  transmit the basic workshop structure: Breathing, Jumping, Expanding and Reducing.

With the DS/DM Basic Certificate teachers are entitled to teach amateurs, community, pre-professional education, children and youth, cultural programmes, dance classes in regular education and dance classes in private studios. This level of certification excludes the possibility to teach at dance academies (BA + MA level), higher education (Universities), and dance professionals or dance companies. 

Upon completion of the DS/DM Basic Certificate, returning to expand DS/DM knowledge with Pre-choreographic elements and the Sensorium Toolkit will be possible, upgrading your certificate to the next level DS/DM Basic +. With the DS/DM Basic +, you enter deeper into creative practices where DS/DM can support an individual's creative process.

The DS/DM teacher training 2021 will take place on the following dates:

A more detailed schedule will be communicated before the first working session. During the working sessions, daily DS/DM training will be offered by former and current dancers of the company (certified DS/DM teachers), as well as guest classes by Emio Greco.

It is required to participate in all dates regarding the working sessions and evaluation. This is to ensure you have time to digest the information, practice and clarify anything to strengthen you in the process of becoming a certified DS/DM teacher. You will be required to continue your own teaching practice between the working sessions.

Application process:
If you are interested in joining the 2021 DSDM Teacher Training, please contact: kelly@ickamsterdam.nl to receive the application form.

• Application Deadline: 15 December 2020
• Fee: €1250 (includes all working sessions, materials; (Capturing Intention) Publication and DS/DM booklet for teachers, and certificate)
• Location: Amsterdam, the Netherlands (studios of ICK Dans Amsterdam)

Application Criteria:
Incoming trainees must have:

• experience in the dance field (a request for videos in performance and improvisation will be included in the application process)
• have experienced at least 10 sessions of DS/DM with certified teachers

Completion of the working sessions does not automatically imply certification. Evaluation of your process in meeting the quality standards will occur at the end of this 6 month trajectory. If you are concerned about not meeting the practice requirements, please inform us in the application process as DS/DM practice online and in person will continue to be offered by ICK up until the commencement of the program.